Where have all the good games gone?

Burnov · Post by **Burnov** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:53 am

I'm undergoing something of a crisis as far as decent software goes these days. It seems to me that no game can really hold my attention for very long at all.

This is the case for multiple reasons. One of which being that I'm an obsessive customizer. It seems like if there's a game out there that can be tweaked. I must tweak it before I can enjoy it. This applies to every game from Jagged Alliance 2 to FOT, OFP to Farcry, you name it. If something doesn't appeal to me I must alter it unless it overwhelms my ability to enjoy the game otherwise.

Usually this has discouraged me as of late for two reasons. One being that It's usually a lot of work salvaging a game so it's playable in my opinion. A lot of editing isn't what I'm up for these days. Secondly, sometimes the games I attempt to edit simply cannot handle what I attempt to do with them without becoming an unplayable mess. For example farcry and my endeavor to add realistic damage for the weapons and detection and combat ranges to the AI.

This resulted in my finding out that the LOD for every entity is determined in the level itself... So basically I had snipers shooting at me from beyond my ability to see them, even though the visual range had been maxxed out. This resulted in a lot of easy kills for the ai. The only way to really truly fix the problem was to edit every single level... and that's a bit too much effort for a game. Games are supposed to be enjoyable, that's a whole disproportionate assload of work for a bit of enjoyment. I don't like the traditional FPS game. So running about taking a million bullets and having enemies take a million bullets is in no way an option.

So... I can't even touch Farcry now. The same issue is happening to me in FOT with the amount of work I'm going to have to go through to enjoy the game (essentially abolishing perception stats below 7). I'm getting rather daunted by this task as I want to play a game now. Not in a week or so.

Another reason I can't seem to fix my attention on a game for more than a short period of time is my utter intolerance for games with serious problems. Specifically with performance or control. I attempted to play Morrowind again now that I've recently gotten a new PC. After having enjoyed Daggerfall so much when I was younger I thought I owed it to myself to try again after being thoroughly disgusted with the poor performance of the game on my 1.8ghz machine.

It has the exact same problems. That awful stuttering which causes the sound and the game to suddenly stop as if you were playing some really laggy online game. For a game that's supposed to be so atmospheric it kills any interest I have in it. Apparently this is -not- an issue of failing hardware. It happens in the Xbox version as well as quite a few people complain about it on the TES messageboards. Even if the supposed tweaks make those lag spikes more endurable. That's way too much work to get a game working as it should. I'm totally disgusted with the game now and tossed my cd in the bin.

I attempted to play Gothic 2. As someone had told me it was an interesting rpg and the combat wasn't of the KotoR, NWN, fake turn-based nature that I find so boring and loathe so much. The controls are annoying, however I read some reviews attributing that to the complexity. I disagree as it was more the issue that the controls triggered ridiculously jumpy and sparse animations for every action the control was associated with. Discouraged again. I uninstalled it as soon as I got a few minutes into the game.

I have Doom 3 kicking around somewhere. However I got sick of traditional FPS games long ago. I could install Deus Ex 2. however Deus ex's combat defied logic with so much overemphasis on stats that I couldn't stand it either.

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical or I'm just outgrowing games altogether. However I'm getting sick of the old games I used to like (or windows XP won't let me play them) as I've played them too much and the new games out there just don't appeal to me at all.

I'm beginning to think this new computer is going to be a really expensive word processor. Right now I can't think of anything worth playing on it and it's beginning to concern me.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:02 pm

Do yourself a favor and pass on Deus Ex 2. Every bit of the game is shit.

What's occupying most of my time right now is Warhammer 40k Dawn of War and Rome: Total War. DoW is similar to Starcraft. It's extremely balanced and well polished with an emphasis on base building and killing stuff. Total War is a lot like Civilization until you enter combat. Then it's like nothing I ever saw before. I played five straight hours last night, and that hasn't happened in years.

Another one I'm playing off and on lately is the first Unreal. Even though I've beaten it a hundred times I still find a way to get stuck. You're gonna need patience though tweaking graphics, downloaded patches, and sacrificing animals before it works right.
Also, Doom and Doom 2 with the doomsday source port http://www.doomsdayhq.com/ is good fun. When new stuff starts making me sick I always go back to the originals.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:02 pm

Never seen anything like Rome: Total War in combat? Did you never play Shogun: Total War or Medieval: Total War?

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:05 pm

Nope. I knew of them, but didn't care.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:54 pm

It's called Vice City. Look into it.

Really, maybe you just need to shift your focus - you mentioned a lot of RPGs and strategy titles. Give Doom 3 a shot, but if you're having system troubles with Morrowind, I'd expect the worst, performance-wise. Try some more action-oriented titles, or play something from a genre you're not really used to.

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:08 pm

I recommend Myst 4. I'm pleasantly surprised by how eager I am to get back to playing it. It's extremely atmospheric - I read that the develoeprs had one of their main goals of making the world seem 'alive', especially when compared to the mostly static environments of the previous games, and they've succeeded. Lots of swirling leaves, cloud shadows, birds fluttering across the screen, even other characters wondering about.

MR Snake · Post by **MR Snake** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:39 pm

How about you stop playing any games ever again, this way youll have nothing more to whine about.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:45 pm

I really don't want to agree with Snake, but I will anyway. Maybe gaming just isn't for everyone. Maybe you've grown out of it (my dad thinks gaming is for kids, not for grown up men), eh?

Try skiing.

Koki · Post by **Koki** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:40 pm

>Amazing<, my old man says this too. Who the hell does he think makes these games? 14-years-old? Baka.

Anyway. Doom, Doom 2, System Shock 2, Sacrifice, Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, Half-Life trilogy, Your Favourite Title From Childhood, Fallout, Fallout 2, Thief, Total Annihilation, Chrono Trigger.

Also, have you tried wreaking havoc online?

If nothing helps, try snowboarding. Skiing sucks

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:35 pm

In addition to Chrono Trigger, try Chrono Cross. Amazing RPG.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:48 pm

If you have a PSX, play Saga Frontier 2.

Goggles · Post by **Goggles** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:04 pm

I too get incredibly sick of the new shit. my solution. just run a search for a genre and you'll find all sorts of abandonware classics.

Koki · Post by **Koki** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 8:24 am

Subhuman wrote:Chrono Cross. Amazing RPG.

Meh.

There is also Homeworld 2, if you bear the story, that is. And get Point Defence Systems Mod - it totally changes gameplay.

Post by **Retlaw83** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 9:06 am

Goggles wrote:I too get incredibly sick of the new shit. my solution. just run a search for a genre and you'll find all sorts of abandonware classics.

I just picked up the original Wasteland from there. I also got a couple other older games, but they are refusing to work.

Burnov · Post by **Burnov** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:16 am

Give Doom 3 a shot, but if you're having system troubles with Morrowind, I'd expect the worst, performance-wise. Try some more action-oriented titles, or play something from a genre you're not really used to.

No... Doom 3 runs reasonably good on my pc at 1024x768... So as I said before. It's pretty much established that morrowind is a horribly inefficient game. It's more a issue of "Are you lucky enough to own a machine that Morrowind agrees with" Than a machine that is actually powerful.

As I said even the xbox version has the same problems I mentioned. I'm just picky and refuse to play a poorly-made game.

I'm just not the generic FPS gamer anymore. I was when I was 17. I'm 23 now and It's just not my thing. I've casually watched other people play Doom 3. It's pretty much in my opinion the original Doom with better graphics. It's the exact same "Shoot monsters with shitty ai as they run towards you until one of you gets killed" fare as the original.

I -was- playing fallout and getting quite into it again and then I had some unexpected problem with my older PC and I had to reformat... so I just lost interest.

I have a... shall we say. Less than legal copy of GTA Vice City and it apparently doesn't run well with nvidia graphics cards on windows XP without a patch, and it can't be patched. So unless I can find it cheap or borrow it from a friend. I'm out of luck.

Anyway. Doom, Doom 2, System Shock 2, Sacrifice, Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, Half-Life trilogy, Your Favourite Title From Childhood, Fallout, Fallout 2, Thief, Total Annihilation, Chrono Trigger.

Well. I'd -love- to play System Shock 2 again however my version is the controversial HOTU abandonware rip. Which unfortunately. Refuses to cooperate on my XP machine. Unfortunately until I fork out the dough to buy a new harddrive to put 98 on... I'm stuck with XP. Networking would be a hassle otherwise. I have Sacrifice, it was OEM software that came with my old Geforce 3. It looked interesting enough but it's an RTS similar to the battlezone series. Personally I'd rather play battlezone 2 but whoop de do... Windows XP strikes again.

Never played homeworld but I'm not a huge RTS fan as of late. Too much furious clicking. I'm very much your gin swilling desktop general, I prefer taking my time with strategy games. So Combat mission or JA2, or X-com Apocalypse would be my choice if in fact I were in the mood for such a game. However X-com apocalypse is a bit too much micromanagement for my tastes right now.

Thief. Now that was a great game, I didn't like Thief: Deadly Shadows at all. I thought Thief 2 was a bit annoying as the objectives required a more passive approach. I like having the ability to murder the shit out of everyone at my leisure if I get bored. I personally enjoyed knocking people out and drowning them in a pond or a sink.

As far as Chrono Trigger. I understand that's a Squaresoft game and unfortunately Squaresoft is renowned for RPGs that I don't like. I'm a very combat gameplay oriented individual. If I don't get to have the control of killing things in creative or diverse ways. I get bored very quickly. Story just isn't enough and those games are pretty much interactive fiction, with a lot of repetitive leveling in between. Watching a little sprite jump at another sprite and hit it and THEN jump back... no. No little sprite of mine is going to jump at another sprite and then jump back like some little pussy after they've attacked. No. They'll keep attacking until their enemies are lifeless heaps on the floor and then they'll loot their ragged lifeless broken carcasses for valuables.

However. I've found a decent game that's keeping me somewhat entertained right now. It's Mafia. I borrowed it from a friend. I have to say the story is pretty well done, only I wish it was a bit more freeform like GTA was. Probably in my opinion one of the greatest things about the game was the ability to damage the cars. Specifically, shooting the bearings on the wheels so the tires pop off while they're driving. I never get tired of that. Especially if I'm being chased by a bunch of cops.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:20 am

Burnov wrote:I'm just not the generic FPS gamer anymore. I was when I was 17. I'm 23 now and It's just not my thing.

So jaded so young.

Koki · Post by **Koki** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:32 pm

Burnov wrote:Well. I'd -love- to play System Shock 2 again however my version is the controversial HOTU abandonware rip. Which unfortunately. Refuses to cooperate on my XP machine.

Ya don't say

Burnov · Post by **Burnov** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:19 am

That's a handy guide. Thanks for the heads-up.

I got SS2 to work on my old 1.8ghz machine but unfortunately I can't network with SS2 because my new computer is a HT machine and I've tried everything on that FAQ and -nothing- works. Still. I'm going to dig up my old sshock.gam file and re play this once my Mafia kick dies down.

Now if I could only figure out a way to get Wargasm to work on windows XP.

the guardian · Post by **the guardian** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:15 am

I have a 486. To me, you see, the good games aren't gone, they never left.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:16 am

What? No comment about Star Control, TG?

Never played homeworld but I'm not a huge RTS fan as of late. Too much furious clicking. I'm very much your gin swilling desktop general, I prefer taking my time with strategy games. So Combat mission or JA2, or X-com Apocalypse would be my choice if in fact I were in the mood for such a game. However X-com apocalypse is a bit too much micromanagement for my tastes right now.

Try Battle Isle 3, or Incubation.